


Breath for Me

by Deannie



Series: Tails Inspired by Typos [2]
Category: The Sentinel
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 1997-11-11
Updated: 1997-11-11
Packaged: 2017-12-31 12:28:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 646
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1031711
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Deannie/pseuds/Deannie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>(Title's not a typo, folks) Blair fights to give Jim something he desperately needs.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Breath for Me

Blair had been trying to peer through the night for twenty minutes now, and all he saw was a hulking blackness where he knew an abandoned building stood. Jim had gone into that building nearly half an hour ago, and Blair hadn't heard a peep from him since.

Just when the anthropologist was about to give up the "being safe" routine and enter the old factory--very much against his partner's wishes--he caught sight of a pair of shadows moving swiftly away from the derelict hulk...

A pair of shadows carrying something big, and Jim-shaped, and absolutely motionless.

Blair caught his breath as he kept his eyes on the shadows and dialled Jim's cellphone for backup. And an ambulance.

He was prepared--barely--to wait for that backup. The nearest substation was less than ten minutes away, and Jim wouldn't thank him for getting killed trying to save him. As much as it hurt, he was prepared to do it...

Until he saw the shadows start moving for the dock.

He got out of the truck and made his way quietly toward the retreating suspects and their seemingly lifeless package.

 

He hoped to hear sirens soon. He hoped they would appear out of nowhere and secure his partner's safety. He hoped that he was wrong when he assumed that that precious, Jim-shaped package was about to be consigned to the waves.

Biting back a scream, Blair watched helplessly as the shadows reached the end of the pier, pitching their burden off into the deeper darkness of the Pacific. And at that moment, Blair wished for something he had never thought to wish for in his life. He wished he had a gun. No justice, no due process. Two bullets, one for each of them. One for each of Jim's killers. He knew that he couldn't get to his partner--not until their backup came. And by that time, if Jim wasn't dead already, he would be.

As it happened, luck was on the anthropologist's side, and the backup he'd been praying for tore around the corner, lights flashing, sirens mute. The shadows dashed for cover, succeeding only in announcing their location to the five police officers who piled out of three cruisers and headed toward them, guns at the ready.

Blair, meanwhile, had run for the pier, and threw himself into that dark water that might already have claimed his lover.

 

It was precious minutes before Blair's hand connected with Jim's still form, and the anthropologist was pitably grateful for the hands that pulled him and his partner from the drink. But he had another problem, one that was as inevitable as his own breath... the fact that his partner wasn't breathing at all.

"Come on, Jim," Blair begged, passing his own breath into his lover's body and listening for signs of life. The heartbeat he heard might only have been an echo of his own, but he wanted to believe it was there, and so it was.

He breathed for his partner again, his pleas now a prayer. "Come on, Jim, please. Breathe for me, buddy. Come on... BREATHE!"

Nothing. The heartbeat must have been real, because he now heard it falter, and his own heart was running like a freight train, so it couldn't be an echo.

Another breath, another prayer.

"Breathe, Jim... Breathe... Breathe..."

He dipped his head to his lover's mouth one more time, nearly sobbing as he realised that Jim was lost to him. He jumped in shock as his lover's tongue reached out through that breath and caressed his lips tentatively.

"Jim?" Blair's only response was a quiet fluttering of his partner's eyelids. But he'd take it. He'd take it over anything, just now.

"Jim... come on, buddy, stay with me... Stay with me..."

The lips before him moved, and a life rattle hiss assured him, "Always."

* * *  
The End


End file.
